Well -- I finally felt strong tonight. After a week of being just "blah" during climbing I managed to get up some good climbs today. I don't know if I just needed something new to work on or what but I spent a week of just kinda doing the moves but not actually enjoying it much -- nor getting up anything new.

Finally tonight I managed to get up some new good climbs. The reset the slab wall. For those of you non-climbers, thats the wall that leans in instead of being overhanging. There are some great climbs on it. A good 5.7 that Jason flashed and then a great 5.8 that he also flashed. I managed to get up the 5.8 without many problems. Then it was on to a 5.10a/b which was also sent with no problems.

After that it was immediately on to a 5.11a which was marked "All aretes on" It was a good workout. I slipped near the middle when I wasn't paying attention to my feet as well as I should have. Meant to get back on it before the evening was over but ran over time. There is always tomorrow.

Jason moved on to an unmarked climb that is somewhere between 5.8 and 5.9 and another 5.7 -- he was doing great tonight as well. I climbed the 5.8/5.9 climb and then tried a measly 5.10a/b -- but after struggling a bit with the first moves and aggrivating an injury I had gotten last week I decided to stay off it.

Jason got up one more 5.9 without so much as a trip and I had time for one more climb. I decided on a 5.10c/d not expecting to make it very far. Carl had set it and it sure was "Crazy" as he is nick-named. It was tracking which meant that my feet had to stay on the same colored holds on the way up -- only there weren't any starting feet. "Great," I thought to myself, "Another smearing start". So I got past the first couple moves and looked up at my next hand hold only to hear Jason start laughing below. I located the piece of tape marking the next hold and saw that it was barely larger then the screw that held it in to the wall. Not a bolt -- this was a screw on of the tinniest proportions. So I look to my next hold thinking that this was just a temporary. The next hold was even tinnier! Carl must have been on crack setting this!!

So I make it past those couple of teansy weensy holds and end up with my thumb on another hold that I have to push on. The hold was barely big enough sticking out for my thumb and I managed to pinch it between my forfinger and my thumb cranking out the move.

A couple more small foot holds and sloper hand holds and I was at the top. Yay for me. So I on-sited the 5.10c/d and it was time to go home.

I'm so glad that I'm out of whatever rut I was in last week. Maybe it was just the allignment of the planets or something crazy but hopefully with this good start to the week the rest of it will go just as well!

--B--

Okay -- not all anatomy. Just Penis Questions and Problems. But they do a decent job at answering those questions that are on everyone's mind: My penis is spotty -- what do I do? Or my boyfriends penis is rainbow colored -- is this normal? You know, those *common* questions. Get 'em all answered here at:

http://www.penis-website.com/

The Adopt-A-Crag went very well today. Between 10 and 15 of us showed up and helped clean up the climbing area around Goat Rock. There was tons of trash from people partying. I got up a couple of climbs -- not tons but a few (three to be exact) but it was good. They were having a raffel for people who were there but I had to give my tickets to Rachel and Terry. We'll see if I won anything kewl tomorrow :)

Images from the excellent day (it was great weather at the ocean!) are up and available at:
This location

Enjoy!
We're off to the city to see Apollo 13 with Gretchen and Chris at the IMAX
w00p!

--B--

Well...Grumpy now has a new home. He went tonight to go with Michele from Jason's church. Jason was kind enough to put up a flyer for Grumpy there and within just a couple days we were contacted.

While I am looking forward to a full nights sleep -- maybe even uninterupted -- it's still sad to see him go. As Missy pointed out, he became a member of the house even if we tried to not get attached.

I have posted the last pictures we have of him. They are available at:
A Tribute to Grumpy

Goodbye Grumpy!

I've flown on many different airlines over my years. From Pan-Am to United to Southwest. Virgin Atlantic, while I ahve not flown on it, offers massages during inter-continental flights. Jet Blue offers plugs in seats for laptops and a slimmed down version of DirecTV in seatbacks.

However I have not yet heard of an airline that provides adult entertainment on a jet until now. And how many airlines show movies with porno soundtracks? Not many would be my guess! So book your next flight now! Visit EcstaSky.

I'm just testing the new "trimmed" browser from the folks at Mozilla. It's called Phoenix and I was just seeing how it did with forms before I make it my default browser. It deffinately loads in about half the time it takes with Mozilla -- even with my 340kb bookmark file.

Looks like they did a great job! If you want to check it out you can grab it here.

--B--

I got the build done today. It wasn't that bad -- but longer then normal. Our component version went from v92c to v97b. That always makes the build go slower. Plus Microsoft has released a TON of fixes and updates to all sorts of stuff. They all made it through QA and of course had to be posted. That meant about 4 reboots for each server. Just slow.

Got home at 7:30ish and then helped make pasghetti. It was nummy! Went climbing bout 8:45pm. Decided to go easy and just do a V0 circuit. Then went around and did 70% of the V1's. It was a good time. Nothing hard, just some good climbing.

Might go to the Adopt-A-Crag on Saturday. They are cleaning Goat Rock. They are picking up trash and power-washing graffitti off the rocks. The local climbing gym, Vertex will have ropes set up for actually climbing outside once all the cleanup is done.

I think Rachel and her dad, Terry, are going to be going as well. Rachel's funny -- she's like 9 or 10. But she's climbing 5.10a's. But I figure that the Access Fund does a good job of keeping climbing areas open to the public so I'll pitch in and help clean up a local climbing spot. Do my good deed for the month or something like that ;)

Guess thats about it fer now.
--B--

Oh yah -- I've updated Weird Web Wonders a couple times -- always forget to post something about it.

Okay -- my day started out bad.
1) zOrg and Grumpy fighting it out and waking me up in the process.
2) Getting in to work early only to find that the thing I was waiting on to be finished last night wasn't yet completed.
3) Dealing all day with systems that weren't working well because of the software we have written and decided to use as a company. Let me say that Crystal Reports sucks ass. Parallel Crystal sucks ass more.
4) Two emergency updates -- neither one really an "emergency". I mean if a customer sends us different data then why should we have to change the way we import it -- they should be consistent in the way they send it to us! Of course we won't get paid for either emergency.
5) These emergency updates put me behind and I didn't leave work until 4pm.
6) Bicycling home I ran over *something* and promptly got a flat (thanks Jason for picking me up!).
7) Upon trying to fix my flat I found that there was something wrong with the front fork -- on a brand new bike!

Then something finally went well -- thanks to Jeff at Cambria Bike, he fixed my fork fer free! And stayed late (they closed at 6pm and I showed up at 5:58pm) to complete it -- BIG THANKS!! Now my fork is fixed and my wheel is patched.

Other things went good too. I went climbing with Jason after he stopped by for some nummy fud that Missy made for us. I climbed a 5.10a (on sighted) and then did some other misc climbs finishing with a superlap up the lead wall (5.10a) down a 5.7, up the 5.7, and back down it. I was TIRED!! Now I got to figure out how to downclimb and unclip at the same time so as to actually finish a true super lap.

Upon arriving back at home we hit #8
8) Something happened to the SQL server tonight that either corrupted a table or screwed up the cache of the table. Anywase, nobody could log in and I had a phone call from both Michael (my manager) and Darlene, this annoying little ... lady who works for us. So instead of trying to figure out what was wrong or attempting to fix it, everyone just waited for me to get home. I mean come on -- there was a specific error it was returning -- all it took was looking at the code that was returning an error and that limited the possible problems from an incredibly high amount to a minute amount. I rebuilt that table and all was good. Total time it took me to diagnose the problem, figure out what to do, actually apply the fix? 15 minutes. Time it was down? 3 hours.

And tomorrow I get to look forward to another unstable build -- maybe instead of adding new features we should make the software stable? Oh wait -- nah, we wouldn't want to do that.

I'm off to bed now. PLEASE let tomorrow go better. However I just have this gut feeling that says it's a TERRIBLE week.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
--B--

We have this kitten. We call him Grumpy. He's a Minx meaning he has no tail. Well our other two cats, Squeeek and zOrg, seem to not really appreciate his young kitten energy. Squeeek just kinda puts up with it. zOrg hisses and growles and just is quite unhappy with the whole situation. So Grumpy is sleepin in the bed with us this morning and zOrg jumps up like he is used to doing.

Only this wakes up Grumpy who promptly upsets zOrg who hisses, growles, and jumps off. The once sleeping kitten is now wide awake and it's TIME TO PLAY!!!! Only why play with Mommy who just turns over and growles like zOrg in her slumber (when you upset her that is) when you can play with Daddy who tries to pet you and calm you back down? Oooooh .. look at those fingers trying to pet me. Let me bite them! Let me scratch 'em! Damn -- he moved them over to the other side of the bed. We'll just climb up and over him using our claws -- he won't mind!

So my extra hour of sleep this morning was interrupted even earlier then if I had gotten up at 6am! *sigh*

Damn cats.
--B--

Do you look at your scissors and wonder, "What other uses do these have?" Well this site takes a look at a use that.. well let me just say, it's flat out gross and NOT NORMAL! I really don't want to know why you would do this... nor why anyone would write about it but it's truly bizarre.

http://www.armchair.mb.ca/~scissors/

Okay ...
Have you ever asked yourself, "What can I do to make this world a better place?" Or possibly, "What can I do to end all this fighting?" How about...

http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/

Okay -- you'll only get this if you are a geek...
There are several types of Software programs that do hd defragmentation. But the ultimate way to defragment a HD is to do it the Hardware way. Need to know how? Here's the site:
http://www.datadocktorn.nu/us_frag1.php

Spent the day home sick today. My head felt like it was going to explode. It does that sometimes.

It's still not draining but 3 benadryl later and I'm not feeling the pressure as bad. Hopefully it'll be better again tomorrow. I think that it's just allergies but I don't know fer sure yet. There has been a cold going on around work and that would suck if I had caught it. But I'm not feeling like I got a cold...

Jason and I went to the climbing gym early yesterday. I was taking my lead climbing test and he was going to learn to lead belay. I'm happy to announce that I passed the test with flying colors (w00p). Jason also "passed" and is now able to lead belay me. It's a totally new beast. So much more work hanging off one arm trying to clip a rope in. I'm starting on simple 5'7s and 5'8s. Hopefully I'll work my way back up to the 10 range. It's all endurance really. I need to start working on the traverses again.

Guess thats about it from here. Hope my heads better tomorrow so I can get in to work and see what trouble I can cause.

--B--

Sheesh!
They reset one of the bouldering rooms at the local climbing gym yesterday. The climbs that are set in there now are HARD!!! I mean I was having problems completing V0+'s.

I did manage to get up a couple V2's and even a V3. But my god -- the V0+'s that are set in there are HARD HARD HARD!! There is at least one that will probably get re-rated. It felt much more like a V1+.

Oh well -- it's good fer me I suppose. Was hard to get motivated when I was having hard times on what should be such easy problems for me.

Guess thats about it fer me. Time to go eat some fud and head off to bed.

I'm going to bed. Bed bed bed bed beeeeeeeeeeeeed.
--B--

Forgot to post the url...
http://oldbrowsers.org/oldbrowsers/

It'll be moved up to the root once I'm confident in it. Probably burn a CD with browsers on it sometime soon and see how well the machine can stream them off a cd to web clients as well. That way I can save on some disk space. Of course the ultimate way is to get a dvd-r but thats farther down the road...

Thnx for pointing out my goof Chris!

--B--

I have posted new images of the kittens we've found and of Squeeek and such. One of the kittens had to be put to sleep. It had uncontrolable bowel syndrome and kept leaking (pooping) everywhere. It's depressing but it was probably for the best. Else we'd have 4 cats now!!

Anywase, they can be found here:
Cats at Home

Enjoy!
--B--

Oldbrowsers.org build 3 is uploaded.
w00p!

--B--

I've gotten so much done!!
Downloads are working -- including counting as it goes...
The front page is shaping up -- it's got some active content on it. Then I think I'll add a "blog" type section to the front page -- so that the default content section is built from the db.

All in all, I'm still planning on posting a new build tomorrow and hopefully going live next weekend. We'll see how long it takes to finish these last things up.

I'm still contemplating the Forum section. Not sure if I want to include it for sure yet -- it shouldn't be that much work to do it but I'm not sure what the benefits would be. We'll see.

Dats it for the update!
--B--

I got the download section working last night. Ended up rewriting a section that was going to handle it to be handled completely differently. So the download part is now working!

I've got to work on the front page so that it's not static like it is now. Then once thats done I'll post up a new build for everyone to go through. I'm thinking that next weekend I'll be able to "Go Live"!

w00p!
--B--

The first use of :-)

Way kewl CG Shorts

Allrighty -- we caught and got Twin fixed. She was a local stray. She wasn't adjusting very well to indoor life so we let her back outside. Tonight Missy gets home and there are three kittens on our porch! Teach me to not pay attention.

We caught two and will hopefully catch the third tonight or tomorrow. Meanwhile we are off to go see Chris and Gretchen Pirillo.

w00p!
--B--

Update -- we just got back. I didn't mention that the two kittens are probably one month or so old. They fit in the palm of my hand! They appear to be mostly weaned. And now for the wierd part -- they have no tails! The third kitten did have a tail -- but we have not yet caught it. Maybe tomorrow!

Okay -- I found some more interesting reading. Did you have various thoughts that a patriotic, "god fearing", normal human worm baby shouldn't have? Here is a collection of several that an editor collected and posted to the web.

Whats kinda scary is that a lot of them ring true!
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/09/11/forbidden_letters/index.html

I found the following article highly interesting and thought I'd pass it along:
http://www.visualjournalism.com/Files/reviews/bush911/page.shtml
And the comic strip itself at:
http://www.visualjournalism.com/Files/reviews/bush911/pageBig.shtml

Enjoy!
--B--

Okay -- this is what I was actually going to post today before seeing everyones reaction to what happened a year ago. While I think we should all spend a moment remembering what happened, it's time to move on (see my other posting).

They are doing work on the roof at my office. This drives my allergies up through the roof. So I've been going in early to try and get some work done before the air becomes too clogged with dust (and who knows what other types of) particles. This means getting my lazy ass up out of bed at 6:04am and in to work by 7am. The sun is just rising over the hills as I start my bike ride in. This made me reflect on other past sunrises in crisp kewl weather. I've been on many different types of trips. Lived in several different locations. I'm a night person by nature but I have sitll managed to see sunrises in almost every situation and place that I have been.

There are few that really stick out in my mind. If I put my mind to it I can remember several but those that just pop into my head at the sight of the sun coming up are ... well ... I can think of three.

However to save you time I will only recount one here now. Maybe over the next couple days as I ride in I will append the other two to my blog.

I was on the freshman outdoor education trip at Dunn School. We were in Joshua Tree National Park. The first two days were spent at a "basecamp" where we did simple day hikes around the area and a couple simple climbs. The next four days we were going to be backpacking from a starting location several miles away back to basecamp. On the third day we followed a dried out stream bed up to the top of a feature that could only be described as a hat. It was easy going up the side we hiked up and ended at a cliff that we were to repel the next day.

If you have ever spent any time in the desert during the fall you will know that days can be quite warm and nights quite cool. Not a cloud in the sky means 80-90 degrees during the day and very close to 32 at night. Because of the lack of moisture we did not errect tents -- instead everyone in my group (I don't remember exactly but I think that there were 6 kids and a teacher and an instructor) decided to sleep under the stars.

It was a beutifull night -- the Earth was being pummeled by a meteor shower and without city lights anywhere in sight the night sky was just amazing. One of those nights where you go, "No wonder the ancients decided to study the stars." It was truly a magical experience.

The next morning, arround 6:30, I woke up and just couldn't fall back asleep. So I got up, decided to go over to the cliff and sit back to watch the sun rise. I took my sleeping bag with me (it was cold!) and found a fairly comfortable location to sit facing east. The glow was already hitting the mountains across the valley we were in making them dark sillouhettes against a brightening sky.

As the sky changed from black to navy blue you could almost sense the valley below us starting to stir. Birds started to speak, lizards began to hunt for breakfast, mountain lions stretched. It was almost all together -- sounds waifting up from the valley a couple hundred feet below. The sky started turning more blue and the rosey color of dawn began to peek over the mountains opposite me.

I was startled away from reflection as I hear someone calling my name. It was our instructor who noticed my missing sleeping bag. I called out that I was fine -- just found a good spot to watch the sun rise. He approached my nature-made bench (it was perfect -- had a nice long flat rock to sit on and a flat rock to lean on behind!) and joined me in silence as the rosey hew brightened. One by one the other students woke up and joined us. It was as if something magical had woken us each up speaking to us in an old forgotten language and whispering about the untold beauty that was taking place.

Everyone except the teacher who accompanied us on the trip had woken up in time to see the first peak of the hot sun to rise over the mountain range across from us. The sky above was rosey colored brightening to the hot yellow-white color of the sun. It didn't seem to take any time for the sun to go from just the slimmest sliver to being a full circle of brilliant light.

One by one the other students went back to camp to prepare breakfast and pack away their stuff until it was just me and the instructor left. As a lizard scrambled by at our feet he turned to me and said, "Well -- I've never had that happen in a group before -- shall we?"

We headed back to camp to a waiting hot breakfast. I stuffed my gear back into my pack and helped break and clean-up camp. We got back to basecamp later that day and nobody said anything about the amazing sunrise we had seen that morning.

It will always be one of the most magical and favorite sunrises that I treasure.

--B--

Okay.
Nobody has asked me for my opinion yet this is my blog so this is where my opinion will get stated.

I woke up one year ago today and proceeded as I do every morning to get ready for work. My brother was up visiting and I was to wake him up before I left. I pulled up IE to check the news and because I use IE to remote admin into my system at work and check email and such. There on the front page was something about some attack on the World Trade Center. I remember going wow -- they must be hurting for articles to have put up another item about the bomb that went off in the basement oh so many years ago. Then Missy called and I re-read the front page. Thats when news sites started getting hammered and up-to-minute news was hard to get (specially since we didn't have a TV or a TV card hooked up at the time).

So... a couple of buildings fell. People died. It was fascinating to watch as it did not directly affect me. Maybe I'm a product of violence on TV and in the movies. I simply went "Wow -- they fell to the ground!" I didn't relish in the fact. It was simply like watching another movie plot unfold.

Now if the so-called terrorists had really wanted to affect the american people they should have done some more research into what really matters. Lets see how the peoples of this country react when they take out Disneyland. Or the Empire State Building. Or the Statue of Liberty. Or the Golden Gate Bridge. To me the WTC were just a couple of buildings. If you show me a picture of the New York Skyline today and the New York Skyline 1 year and 1 day ago I can see the difference -- but that is about it.

I'm not saying that it's not tragic that people died. I'm not saying that it's not a terrible thing. However if you look at it in context -- compare it to say, Hiroshima (which we ourselves (Americans) did to an entire city), D-Day (and the entire WWII for that matter), deaths from starvation in third-world countries, and other terrorist attacks on other locations, it was terrible but a relatively small amount of life was lost.

Now, one year later, people are still unbelieving that this type of attack could happen. Believe it. We Americans think that we are way kewl. We think that because we were the first large country to make democracy work that we can, and that it is our duty, to force this on other countries. I say that we are just as screwed up as the next country. And because of our politics we have alienated a large number of peoples around the world. Once you alienate an entire peoples you make enemies. My only question to those so-called terrorists -- why have you waited this long? Sheesh -- we even came up with plots for you in the form of action (educational) movies!

As I bike into work I pass a fire station. When I come in at 7:00am I rarely see anyone moving about the station -- most likely they are just waking up and eating breakfast. This morning I pass by the station and the three fire trucks that "live" in the station were all out with their lights on. Now I was thinking about how I would have to react if they pulled out right in front of me. If I was supposed to stop (since it didn't look like anyone was getting in them yet). If I was supposed to slow down -- speed up -- pull into a traffic lane. So many options! So I decided to slow down.

As I got closer I realized that the entire crew for that station -- not just those that were "on duty" but the entire crew, along with their families and children, were out front and they were lowering the flag on the fire station to half mast. Now this ... *this* meant more to me then watching some stupid news report (or lack there of).

Why? I don't know. Was I moved to tears? No. Did it make me feel differently about the events that happened a year ago? Not in the least. However it showed me one reason that I like being human. It's okay to be yourself. Having your own opinions might not be safe in every country but everyone does. And while our Government is attempting to take a lot of that freedom away in the name of national security (hey -- they were attempting to do it even before the WTC attacks last year -- this just spead it along), we Americans still have some rights -- we are under obligation to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice.

So -- whats the point of my ramblings? As a country it's time to frickin' move on. Some bad things happened. Worse shit happens around the world -- we had it coming and like the great earthquake that is supposed to take out California, we were overdue. Lets stop weeping and carying on. Let the widows, orphans, friends and families who lost loved ones greeve on their own. They don't need our help! Let us remember this event every year on this day -- the eleventh day of September. But on the other 364 days of the year let's carry on as things were!

And lets royally fuck the guy who takes out Disneyland!
--B--

Okay -- so this one isn't really all THAT weird. It's still quite original!

Too bad it wasn't real.
http://groundzerothemepark.com

I uploaded a new version of oldbrowsers.org last night. We'll call it an official Buld 2.
Whats new? The downloads section actually displays correct data -- and it actually pulls data from the db -- most of the work has been done in this section. The news section had some speed tweeks on the SQL side (not that it was slow -- just thought of a better way to handle a stored proc).

Whats left? The actual download part of the downloads page. Administration pages (farther out). Forum (farther out).

Thats about it. I'll probably finish this up most of the coding for the actual site this week (w00p)! That'll be minus the forum and the administration pages.

--B--

Hmmm

I'm not awake yet but I figured out that I missed something in my design for oldbrowsers.org. See -- with both the Mac and Windows machines there were two subcategories. For Windows it was 16bit and 32bit apps. For Mac it was 68k and PPC (actually two different chips).

In my design I've only allowed for "Windows" and "Mac" categories. Now it looks like I've got to also add in Windows 16bit and Windows 32bit. I suppose I can add sections into the menu area on the left. Or maybe list the two types of platforms like: "Microsoft Internet Explorer 16bit" Actually I kinda like that second option. But it might make the list of browsers to large.

Argh!
I've also ran into a stumbling block where I'm trying to hide the "Comments" section if there are no comments. Just can't seem to do it! I'll finger that one out tho.

--B--

Okay -- once again the UK kicks ass...
Someone left a hamster outside in a little "hamster" car (a car with a hamster wheel in it). The hamster took off for some unknown reason and was picked up what is surmised as several hours later on a major highway.

Just makes you wonder...
http://www.blackpooltoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=62&ArticleID=205993

Big title for a umm -- interesting outlook at Sept. 11th and the time since. Not that I disagree with it in any way -- it's just .. well .. weird!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/newsid_2209000/2209407.stm

Zapata Espinoza is an editor for Mtn. Bike Magazine. He always is writing great articles that make you either go "hmmm" or "yah -- those stupid fucks!". Here are some of his better ones -- I was looking for the article where he talked about the DUI's in LA -- "Driving Under blonde Influence" is how I believe he termed it. Anywase here are a couple really good ones that I've always liked:

Whining by the Gallon
Come to your Sense

Unfortunately they don't have any archives of the '02 year yet. Oh well :)

--B--

I'm sure this is going to be an ongoing thread/rant/whatever.
Let's start with the behind-the-scenes story.

I comute to work on a bicycle. Why? Becuase I enjoy the exercise. It gives me time to wake up in the mornings. It's cheaper then a car. It's easier to park a bike. The list goes on and on. Many reasons why -- we'll leave it at that. I have ridden a bicycle to work since I was 18. I've ridden as much as 15 miles each direction to and from work -- and as short as half a mile. Distance is not a problem for me.

Here in Santa Rosa I can, if I leave at 5:00pm on the dot, get home in 2-3 minutes more then it takes in a car. I routinely run into the same cars over and over at stop lights. I average around 17mph on the way in to work and around 25mph on the way home. Not terribly fast but I'm on a mtn bike and I'm too lazy to switch tires back and forth (on a side note I might be getting my road bike finished this weekend...).

I ride my bike both deffensively and offensivley -- it really depends on the situation. If I'm needing to cross lanes of traffic I will be on the offensive. If I'm riding in a bike lane I'm happy to yield to cars -- when it's appropiate.

Now .. for the rant part.
It seems that every couple months drivers around the ENTIRE country go through a period of stupidness. We'll call it Stuipd Driving Syndrome (SDS). Now it's not ALL drivers. But it seems to be quite a few over the period of about three weeks. They stop paying attention. They don't look before turning. They assume that I'm on a bike so I can't be going *that* fast. They slam on their brakes for no apparent reason. I really think someone should do a study on this syndrome!

A couple of examples:
I'm riding *in a bike lane*. I am approaching a signal with a right hand turn lane. I arrive pedal on to through the so called "safety zone" in the bike lane. A car decides they want to turn left. Without looking, without thinking, without realizing they already passed a bicyclist, they blindly pull over into the bike lane and cut around cars to get to the turning lane. I've had this happen more then once. I've had to pound on peoples cars while they do this to not get run over. I've prepared to bunny hop onto the sidewalk to not get hit.

I'm riding *in a bike lane*. I pass a school where parents are dropping off kids. There is a line to drop of their kids in the parking lot so what do they do? They stop in the bike lane causing me to swerve out into a traffic lane as to avoid them. This happens every morning I come in at 8am and school is in session. I've had them pass me on my bike and then pull into the bike lane and stop. I've come across them just sitting there for what seems like 3 or 4 minutes waiting to unload their kids -- in the bike lane. Now last I checked, the side of the road -- when there is a bike lane -- unless otherwise marked -- is for EMERGENCY PARKING ONLY. Stupid people.

I'm riding on a street with NO bike lane. I'm over -- not in the gutter (I refuse to ride in the gutter on princible -- I've gotten more flats when I accidently get over that far -- where all the junk from the street has been pushed), but on the side of the road. A car, with plenty of room to pass me, drives up behind me, decides that I'm an easy target and sits there on their horn.

I'm riding on a street with or without a bike lane. I approach a side street. A car either pulls out of the side street making a turn onto the street I'm on -- OR a car is turning onto the side street. In both situations I, the moving person on the bicycle, end up getting cut off.

Now there are some drivers out there that actually follow the idea "share the road" and will yield to bicyclists. However these are few and far between. I've even had problems with busses!! However fire trucks always seem to be quite considerate of bicyclists.

I hate to point out a coeraltion without further evidence but 9 times out of 10 the drivers are a) Female b) On a cell phone c) Driving an SUV or Bimbo Box (Mini-Van). I read a great editorial in Mtn. Bike Magazine on this very fact -- that it is these people you have to be most wary of.

Thank god this is the second week of what normally turns out to be three weeks of bad .. no TERRIBLE drivers and hopefully after next week things will return to the nice safe ride that I so enjoy.

So -- will someone please do a study on SDS and tell me why it happens and better yet -- how to avoid these drivers? Maybe we should make them get cars all painted a hideous orange. Maybe we can make them get a special sign for the back window. Maybe we can just shoot them and solve all the world's population problems. Maybe we can die the death they so richly deserve.

Or maybe, since I'm in the minority when I'm on the road, I'm just full of shit.
You decide.

--B--

Oh yah!
Almost forgot!

I've got a working (well sorta working) site up for everyone to check out. The overall idea is done. The layout I think is complete except for the first page. About 60%-70% of the behind-the-scenes code is complete.

It can be seen at:
http://oldbrowsers.org/oldbrowsers/

Enjoy!
Brent

We have this feral cat. We call her "Twin" because when she was born she looked exactly like another feral cat that we called Sia. Anywase, Tiwn has been hanging around more and more so we decided that we would get her fixed, get her shots, wormed, all the fun stuff. There is a program here in Sonoma County that pays for the fixing if you pay for the rest.

So Missy caught her and me, not liking to see animals in small cages, said we should just keep her in the downstairs bathroom. Now this cat is not stupid (like Zorgy). She is quite smart. When we were catching cats last year she was the one who sat outside the cage and used her paw to get the food and treats we had inside the trap. Twin discovered she could pull up the linolium in the bathroom in the corner. So she did that quite a bit -- she discovered she could open the window by pushing up on it, so she tried to get out that way. Finally everything got quiet and Missy headed off to bed. I was going to stay up and watch a show on the Tivo and then follow her.

About 45 minutes later I hear a crash in the bathroom and decide I should investigate. I walked down the hallway and stomped loud in front of the door hoping to scare her back. I cracked open the door to see where she was and she was right there at the crack. She managed to get her head out the door and I was reaching down to push her back in when she managed to get the rest of her body out.

I quickly pounced on her and pinner her to the carpet. She was trying like mad to get away and I had seen Missy grab her by the scruff of her neck and hold a quite calm Twin. That was what I was aiming for when she twisted like I thought only ferrits could do and sunk her teath into my thumb. In fact she did it a couple of times -- like a cobra striking at Jeff Corwin "Okay," I thought, "that isn't really hurting -- I'll grab her with my other hand." To which Twin decided my thumb wasn't good enough and grabbed the middle finger of my left hand. Now this one hurt right away so I let her go.

Blood slowly seeped out of the holes she had put in my fingers and I scrambled up stairs in a state of shock. I ended up waking up Missy (sorry!!) and she proceded to calm my adrenaline rush down.

All in all it was a not great close to a not great day.
*sigh*

In other news I did manage to get a V2 that I had been working on for a couple of times at the climbing gym. I am supposed to take the lead class on Monday (w00p). I'm not going to let these little teath marks keep me from doing that -- I've already decided! The holes on my left hand don't hurt at all -- the ones on my right hand's thumb frickin' kill. But they feel like when you get a wire splinter -- something that will hurt for a couple of days and then just kinda stop. At least I hope thats what will happen!

So I think at least three days of nice easy relaxation -- maybe get back on some climbs on Sunday! *sigh*

--B--

May the kitty RIP
http://www.napster.com

--B--

It's a build day here at LTI. What does that mean? It means that it's the other wednesday when people say it'll happen every other wednesday. It means that my stress levels go way up. It means that I've got to co-ordinate all the last minute fixes and problems that QA (Marta) finds. It means that I wish I were asleep. It means that I get no lunch. It means I work late. It means that it's just a rather crappy day all together.

On a more positive note, I had a great time down in Santa Barbara. I didn't get to climb (*waaaaah*) because Randy was too busy. But I got to hang out with an old friend, Jim, and got to visit with my brother, Ian. We also got to with my grandparents who live in Santa Ynez -- they are fun to visit -- and I get Pound Cake each time I go down!

Also got to meet the new headmaster for Dunn, spent money on some old gear that Randy was selling, and got to see Rose Knoles. She seems to be doing good. She's taught at Dunn for somewhere between 30 and 35 years. She's got an interesting band this year -- I'm gonna try and arrange some music for it. Three violins, two flutes (one is third violin), two saxes, a couple of guitars, a bass, a drummer, and a piano player. Wonder what I can do with that combination? We'll see!

Last night I managed to get my lazy ass up a 5.10d that I've been working on for just under a month now. Well I haven't worked *hard* on it -- in fact I worked on it twice and then gave up on it for two weeks. Tried it again last week and failed on the last move *yet again*. Tried it again last night and failed to do the last move a couple of times. Then I tried turning a foot and *poof* there it was. Skip the hold on the left -- it's not worth it. It's a pure grunt type of move. Just *grunt* and there you are at the top. At least if you are tall. I don't think short people could do it that way.

I'm gonna be taking the leading class next Monday (w00p). It should be fun. At least I hope it will be. There is a whole set of climbs that are lead climbs only. They are probably beyond my leading capabilities (I think the lowest is a 5.10b) but if I start now I should be able to get to them eventually.

Well I guess thats about it -- we didn't take *any* pictures on our trip. Mostly because I kept forgetting we had the camera with us. Oh well. Jason and I need to plan a trip down that direction in November(ish) to go climbing. It would be sweet!

L8tz!
--B--